My.SolidWorks: 10 questions with Greg Jankowski

The main focus of the initial release (we are in beta now) is to browse recent content and search across our hosted community and learning web sites. This allows for one gateway into the valuable resources within the SolidWorks community.

My.SolidWorks consolidates access to key sources in the SolidWorks Community. It’s a place to find answers to questions you may have about being
productive with SolidWorks, and keep up with recent activity in the Community in a personalized experience. And it is a foundation for us to offer additional services over time.

For now, My.SolidWorks doesn’t replace any of our existing online properties, including the Customer Portal. The Customer Portal has useful
links to your Support activity, to system requirements, downloads and more, which are not currently available in My.SolidWorks. But for tips, insights and knowledge about how to use SolidWorks most effectively, we suggest using My.SolidWorks.

Over time, we will include more content and services in My.SolidWorks, and we will consolidate Web properties as we expand what is available in My.SolidWorks.

3. Do I need to login to access My.SolidWorks?

No you do not, but you will not have access to all the features and content within My.SolidWorks without logging in.

4. What login do I use to access My.SolidWorks?

Use the same account you use to gain access to the SolidWorks Forums and Customer Portal. If you do not have an account yet, take a few minutes to create an account.

5. What are the main areas of My.SolidWorks?

The landing page (magazine view) of My.SolidWorks is an aggregation of recent content sources within our community. When you view an item from the magazine view, you will open a reader view that allows you to read and share the directly inside My.SolidWorks.

6. What content sources are used for browsing (magazine view)?

The sources available for browsing (magazine view) and searching are exactly the same. For example, since there is not recent content for the online help, it’s not included in the browse (magazine view).

All the items above (less Twitter) and in addition the SolidWorks Online help is added. We plan on adding the SolidWorks Knowledge Base before My.SolidWorks comes out of beta.

8. How do I limit content on the main (magazine view) or search pages?

There are filters for the main (magazine view) or search pages. For the magazine view there is a filter button, and for search, the filters are always shown on the left side.

9. How much content is available on the browse and search pages?

The magazine view on the main page (magazine view) is limited to <100 items that were recently created or updated from the community. Search crosses all the community sources and searches a vast amount of SolidWorks related content.

10. What if I have comments, questions, or ideas on how to improve My.SolidWorks?

We launched a public beta of My.SolidWorks for one simple reason; we value our communities’ feedback and wanted to insure, as we always have, that we listen and deliver a site that enhances and strengthens the community. We created a new space within our community to share ideas and discuss My.SolidWorks.

Greg Jankowski is the Director, SolidWorks Community & Content Strategy at DS SolidWorks Corporation. He is the author of SolidWorks for Dummies, SolidWorks for AutoCAD Users, and the e-book Exploring SolidWorks.
Greg is a regular presenter at SolidWorks User groups and SolidWorks World where he hosts the CAD Admin Bootcamp.
Greg started the 1st online SolidWorks community on comp.cad.solidworks and continues to support SolidWorks online communities and other customer web related resources.